User:Josephjordania/Question Intonation

Question Intonation

Specific rising intonation, often used in the interrogative sentences, is known as question intonation.

Universality

Question intonation is one of the strongest universals of human communication and language. The only known exception, Chitimacha, studied by Morris Swadesh, is generally considered controversial, as the information came from only one surviving user of the Chitimacha language. Even in tone languages, if the system of the tones and the question intonation come into conflict, native speakers follow the rules of the question intonation

In many languages questions are usually formed by question words, or so-called wh-question words ("Who", What", Where"; like "Who are you?"), or by syntactis structures (for example, a question "Am I a teacher?" can be formed from the declarative "I am a teacher"). At the same time, even syntactically formed questions are still often accompanied by the rising intonation. There are languages where the intonation is the only means to turn a declarative sentance into a question.

In non-human species

J. Goodall describes chimpanzee inquiring pant-hoots, which “...tends to rise in pitch toward the end of the series and is almost always followed by a pause during which the caller listens intently and (if at a lookout position) scans the surrounding countryside. A chimpanzee who hears another pant-hoot often responds by calling (usually with pant-hoots, sometimes also with waa-barks and even screams); thus the individual who initiates this question-and-answer exchange will learn both the identity and the whereabouts of those who reply” (Goodall, 1986:134). J. Jordania considers chimpanzee pant-hoots as the predecessor of human questioning behavior (although, according to him, chimpazees do not possess the cognitive ability to ask questions).

In children

Children ask their first questions using rising question intonation, long before they can form sentences using syntactic structures. For example, a child, hearing a sound of door, is able to inquire about the identity of a person who just came by using one word and a quetion intonation: "Daddy?"